When Gibbs arrived at the scene he was greeted by a flashing mash of white, red and blue lights reflecting harshly off the water and oil-slicked tarmac. He pushed past the teams of news crews bucking against the crime scene tape trying to get footage for the eleven o'clock news and wormed his way through the crowd of gawkers craning their necks in the hopes of seeing something gruesome that they could share with their co-workers over coffee in the morning. He paced quickly up to and ducked under the yellow tape and into the gassy atmosphere of the road. He mentally thanked Jenny for cordoning off the entire road, instead of just the strip where DiNozzo and McGee had been attacked.
Sometimes nothing was more beautiful than a crime scene. Gibbs approached them reverently and passionately, hoping for solvable and yet exigent mysteries and puzzles with no missing pieces. But he wasn't hoping for a challenge this time. The simpler, the quicker, and the quicker it was the better for DiNozzo and McGee and the better for his own sanity and rage.
Once he was past the crime scene squad van and was able to see the car, he felt as if someone had immediately sent him a swift kick to the gut. The car was not only riddled with bullet holes and smashed glass but it was also crushed in on the driver's side by a large white SUV. What the hell had happened here?
He made his way past the police officers and crime scene investigators to try and get a closer look at the vehicle. Even from twenty feet away he could see Ati's body covered by a white sheet on the road.
He stopped when he saw the Director approaching.
"Gibbs, how are DiNozzo and McGee?" she asked, walking briskly up to him, a sincere look of concern in her eyes.
"Since when do you come to crime scenes?" Gibbs asked a little harshly.
"Since two of my agents were ambushed and attacked at one by a terrorist, Agent Gibbs. Now, do you have the medical status of Agents DiNozzo and McGee?"
Gibbs ignored her question once again with a disapproving look. Gibbs needed to focus and try and figure out whoever was responsible and try not to think about the fact that two of his agents were currently in the Emergency Ward of Bethesda. "What have you bee able to put together here? Any evidence yet, any eyewitnesses?"
"You don't like eyewitnesses, Jethro."
"At this point in time, I'll take whatever I can get."
Jenny smiled and nodded to a couple on the sidewalk looking pale and shaky. "They were driving in the opposite direction. According to them, a few men dressed in black, they're not sure of the exact number, jumped from the back of a black or dark blue van and opened fire on the sedan." She paused. "They had semi-automatics."
Jenny gave Gibbs a moment to let him soak in the last fact. A gunshot wound was dangerous enough but being shot at by a semi-automatic usually amounted to death. Gibbs wondered how it was that McGee had not been hit and that Tony, who had been hit twice, was even alive.
"Apparently Agent DiNozzo was driving and he reacted by accelerating into the back of the van. He crushed one of the attackers," she pointed to a spot a little further up the road where another white sheet lay draped over a human form. "One of the tyres was blown out as well, so couple that with the skid marks and we can assume that that's how they hit the SUV. The couple also said that after the attack at least one man hopped back into the van and sped off."
Gibbs swallowed and asked, "And Abdul Ati?"
She glanced over to the patch of road where Ati was lying dead. "Double tap to the chest. He was still handcuffed when he was shot. He never had a chance."
Gibbs swallowed. "The witnesses. Can they give a description of the men?"
"Already working on it, Jethro, but it was dark and raining and they were wearing full black military wear. I don't expect good results."
Gibbs gave Jenny a lingering glance before moving over to the car to take a closer look. When he rounded to the driver's side door he saw blood everywhere. Tony's blood – everywhere. He was not used to looking at blood without an accompanying body, so it seemed oddly unrealistic to him. He decided not to try and sway his mind from that feeling and make it appear any more tangible than it already was. It was then, however, that he saw a bottle of a disgusting-looking, highly-sugared, bright orange energy drink sitting in the centre cup holster. His mind immediately flashed to Tony, buying those ridiculous sodas whenever he got sick of coffee. He tried to ignore the connections his mind was now sending him between the orange drink and the blood before Jenny interrupted him.
She walked up to him from behind. "Gibbs, this is not good. This is far from good. We have a dead prisoner, two severely injured agents and at least one terrorist on the loose. We need answers fast."
Gibbs reigned in his anger by letting out his words in a deep growl. "Look, Director, these aren't just injured agents – these are my agents. They are my team. You think I'm not wanting to find out who the hell did this to them?"
"And that's exactly why I'm considering pulling you from the case."
"What?" Gibbs was incredulous. "The attack on DiNozzo and McGee is just part of the ongoing investigation into Billy Adala. I'm going to continue to work my own case."
"The other agencies will raise Holy hell if you do."
"No reason for them to."
"Tainted evidence, Gibbs," Jenny lied, knowing full well the reason she wasn't going to hand over carte blanche to a vengeance-verging Gibbs. "Listen, I like DiNozzo and McGee, too. They're both fantastic agents and great men. But you said it yourself. They're your agents and they're your men and that's why you can't touch this case. Give it to Agent Sanders. He wouldn't know favouritism or personal motive if it bit him on the ass."
"No, he wouldn't."
"Gibbs, I can't tell you what to do on this. But, my advice - - go back to the hospital. Wait for them to stabilise and then no one's going to stop you from seeing them. Take Agent Todd and Abby with you. But you ought to stay as far away from this case as possible. There is too much at risk for you and the agency."
"I don't give a stuff about myself or the agency!" Gibbs yelled. "Sanders' solve-rate is nowhere near ours, and he's loaded already. I'm not going to let this bastard walk because of politics!" Gibbs could hear himself, almost like his voice was reflected in some auditory mirror. The anger. The raw grief. He sounded like a family vigilante thirsting for blood, and it wasn't hard to see why Jenny wanted to keep him from this case. He steadied himself, pulled his emotions back before they could win control completely. "It'll be airtight. I get all the evidence the DA and the FBI could possibly want. We both know that they can't accuse us of personal tampering if the evidence speaks for itself."
"Tampering with evidence isn't my primary concern, Gibbs," she finally said, eying him warily.
"I want this bastard alive, Jenny. At least until I get what I want from him."
"I had a feeling you'd take this reaction." Her eyes smiled.
"Well, your feeling was remarkably accurate." His voice was still steely. "Tell Sanders that we will continue to cover the Adala case, and if he has any problems with that, he can talk to me personally. Same goes for any other heads of agencies." His last few words rolled off his tongue laced with authoritative defiance.
"I've seen to it that Fornell will be heading up the FBI side of things for the case. He's working in conjunction with agents from JTTF and now the CTD."
It was the one possible thing that could have in any way stabilised him in relation to the investigation, and it did. Gibbs forced himself to breath out slowly, to calm down. Do his job like he had done it all his life, and like this case wasn't more important than any other. Establish the criminalist's Holy Trinity, the one that didn't grant bitter answers to unspoken prayers. Victim. Suspect. Crime scene.
He had the first, he had two of the first. Abby would have the last, no matter which agent headed the case. And he wanted the middle. Very, very badly.
"I want Abby to process everything from this scene," he said.
"I had a feeling you'd say that, too." Jenny finally smiled again. "Since I knew you'd dig your own grave, I thought I'd grab a shovel and pitch in. I hustled Abby out of bed fifteen minutes ago, gave her the story. She was impossible to talk to with the state she was in so I allowed her to visit the hospital first, although I've made her promise that she'll return within a few hours and begin running the tests."
Gibbs was almost struck numb with gratitude. He said, humbly, "Thank you."
There were some points in his life where he was glad that certain people knew him too well.
- - - -
Abby found Kate sitting in the waiting room exactly where Gibbs had left her. She was staring at something in her hands but when she saw Abby approaching she shoved it back into her coat pocket.
"Kate!" she yelled, running over to her, still dressed in her black tank top and shorts from bed. She hadn't even thought to get dressed. She just threw on her boots so her feet wouldn't get wet and ran. "Kate! Where are they? Where did they take them? Have either gone into surgery? Were both shot? Are either stable yet?"
Kate resisted the urge to laugh at the state Abby was in. Abby was probably the one person in the world that could calm Kate's nerves by being worried sick herself. "Abby, you must be freezing!" she said, standing and pulling her jacket off. She wrapped it around Abby's half-naked form and pulled her into a hug along with it.
Abby wrapped her own arms around Kate and clutched at the back of her shirt. "Where are my boys?" she asked again. Kate could hear the tears in her voice.
"They're - - alive, Abby."
Abby pulled back from the hug with clouded and pointed eyes. They looked worn and clammy already. "Alive? Well, of course they're alive, Kate! McGee and Tony aren't allowed to die!"
Kate smiled again. "They're both here, Abs," she continued, her eyes still red raw from crying herself. "Tim is just leaving Intensive Care now. He's going to be fine. He has a broken collarbone and a concussion but he's..." she let out a breath. "He's going to be fine. We can see him as soon as they move him to recovery."
Abby knew that if Kate hadn't volunteered any news about Tony then there probably wasn't any to give. But she had to ask, "And - - And Tony?"
"Nothing yet," Kate's voice cracked and for a moment Abby thought she might begin crying. However, despite the chink in her armour earlier, she was back to the consummate professional Special Agent. She rubbed at her eyes, "He was sent up to surgery almost two hours ago. I haven't heard anything since."
"Surgery?" Abby almost yelled.
"He was shot twice. Once in the chest and once in the head."
"In the head?" Abby was hysterical, her hands clutching at her pyjamas as she paced the two metres back and forth in front of Kate.
"Abby, I'm still not sure how it happened... or how he's even still alive," Kate slumped back into the chair behind her, her emotions clawing once more to spill from her eyes.
Abby was panic-stricken. Two of her favourite boys were lying in that emergency room and she couldn't do anything to help them. But she pushed past her own stress and smiled warmly as she took a seat beside her. "Life is good, Kate. We shouldn't even have that."
Abby had always seen people after they'd been killed, after they'd died. She couldn't prevent anything from happening. Sometimes she'd felt useless, but never as much as she did right here, right now, looking into the eyes of one of her best friends and having no idea what to say. She knew how close Kate and Tony were and yet still couldn't quite muster the words that she felt were needed to soothe that kind of a chink to that kind of a relationship. She'd always been there for Kate. She knew the right words to pull her out of a bad case or a bad boyfriend at any moment in time. But this wasn't a case. And it wasn't a boyfriend. This was Tony. And the words she needed just didn't seem to come.
"I know, Abs," Kate said. "It's just..."
"I know you were meant to be in that car, Kate," Abby said, suddenly realising the direction Kate was heading and cutting her off. "But there's nothing you could've done. Don't wish that you'd been there, because I know you don't."
"Yes, I do, Abby. Then Tony wouldn't have been in there." Kate pointed to the double doors. "I would."
"And you'd be fighting for your life instead. And do you have any idea how much harder it is to comfort Tony instead of you?"
Kate dropped her head into a small smile.
"I know you love him, Kate," Abby continued. "And he loves you too. We all love him." Her mouth squirmed and almost suckered into a sob. "I'm not doing this right. I guess I'm not great at the whole consolation thing altogether."
Kate placed her hand gently over Abby's and gave it a gentle squeeze.
"No, thank you, Abs. Really. It means something."
Abby took a moment to study Kate's face before putting an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close. "He's going to be okay, Kate. It's Tony. Who's gonna annoy you if he's gone? Somehow I don't think McGee's gonna quite make the cut."
Kate tried to smile, but only her lips curled up at the edges. She bit her lip and considered her words carefully before giving up. "But it's... It's Tony."
"I know," Abby said, simply. She watched a single tear run down Kate's cheek and land near the corner of her mouth. She wondered if she could taste the salt on her lips.
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